Ravenous Destruction

People often ask me what bands I listen to. It seems like a simple enough question. Really it is and I do enjoy talking about music, especially metal. However being the shy socially awkward metalhead that I have trouble answering that question… in fact I dread it. There I am at a show or a party or something and someone tries to attempt a conversation with me by asking what bands I like. I try my best to answer but I can’t name name a single band I like. Not one. My mind is a vast empty space. Umm I don’t know….I think real hard. Fuck. I don’t know. I listen to music every day. I have hundreds of tapes and cds. I collect records. I go to shows and festivals every chance I get… but no… I can’t think of single band I like. Eventually a band jumps into my mind, it falls right from my lips and it’s always a band that sux. A band I don’t like. Then I’m stuck taking about some band I don’t even like to someone who at this point thinks I listen to bands that suck. I think I need to take along some neatly written notes on little index cards next time I’m out.

[tumblr]

Friday
We arrived in Baltimore some time in the afternoon and found our hotel. It was a small 20 room hotel and that seemed to be located an endless number of blocks away from the venue. At first the hotel staff wanted to move us to another venue three miles away. Then they finally gave us a room…and what a room it was. The hotel itself was well old, very old. It took about five minutes to climb the wobbly antique staircases that shook with every step. It felt as though it may collapse at any moment unless of course one were to fall over the three and half foot railing first. While we were risking our life climbing the this staircase with all our things the hotel staff started harassing us about how many people were gonna be in the room. The room lacked many things like floor space and cleanliness. We had been here less the 10 minutes and we were really not liking this place. Kelly is probably one of the most laid back people I have ever met. I never once seen her disgruntled…until now. In fact she was so disgruntled that she started calling other hotels to book another room. Which is how we ended up at the Sheraton. Once settled in Joe headed over to the club while Kelly and I had a a bite to eat. Shortly thereafter our four other hotelmates from Virgina arrived. Next thing we knew it was getting late and time to head over to the Sonar.

I only saw a few bands that night, but it didn’t matter cause they were a few of the bands I wanted to see the most. There was a thunderstorm just before Neurosis was about to go on. I can’t think of many things more awesome then seeing Neurosis play in a thunderstorm. Sadly that didn’t not happen and their set was delayed for what felt like an endless amount of time. I liked their set but I felt like I was too far away from the stage. Maybe I was just stoned or something but I felt like I was miles away. I want to see them again and try that one more time.

The last band of the night Marduk. I’ve been waiting years to see them again. They were gonna play MDF in 2009 but couldn’t get into the country. Needless to say I was quite happy to see them play again.

The club tried to cut their set short and turned the lights on. That did not stop them. They kept on playing. They didn’t come all the way over from Sweden to to get kicked off the stage before they even finished their set. I have to say watching them continue to play was one of the bestest moments of the the weekend. Friday was awesome bit not as awesome as…

Saturday

Saturday was most awesome. Early in the afternoon Kelly and I got a few beers and then she started drinking this really strong rum and coke drink. I helped her drink it and then went and got another for us to share. When I returned she had abandoned me. I had to drink the whole thing by myself. That’s when things got fuzzy.

I knew I had to much to drink when I stared spending money I shouldn’t have been spending. I got a cool MDF t-shirt though and I took a lot of pictures.

I met Chicken Man. I sat down with him and lit up some herb. Before I knew it a bunch of friends joined us. We had a fun time smoking with Chicken Man. Next thing I know I was at the liquor store buying some Guinness. At that point I had enough to drink but oh well. Had a few beer at the hotel and then it was back and forth between the hotel and the club.

At some point early in the evening I was back at the hotel with Kelly. She made me a sandwich and then I decided to lay down for a bit. I ended up passing out for the rest of the evening. I missed every single band that played Saturday night. I woke up to a room full of people. Kelly told me that I told her to wake me up to party later if I passed out. She did and she even brought Tom back to hang out with us. Kelly is most awesome. We heading down to Sly and Kevin’s room at some different hotel I can’t remember the name of.

We hung out on the rooftop drinking beers and smoking herb. We stayed up there for a while and I could slowly see the sky starting to brighten. It was getting early. We eventually headed back to our hotel. Everyone went to to sleep and I hung out with Tom until the sun came up.

Sunday
Woke up, got stoned, had a cup of coffee, got stoned and had a fabulous morning. At some point in the afternoon I headed down to the club to enjoy the very last day of MDF.

I saw Malignant Tumour. It was fun times for sure. Thanx to the MDF party brigade it was like mosh pit meets beach party. Lots of inflatable things flying though the air and silly folks just being silly.

I saw Orange Goblin for the first time ever and absolutely loved them. I’m just glad I was in the right place at the right time or I may have missed them.

I also saw Coroner. Never really listened to them much but I liked their set and I got some decent pictures of them as well.

Last band of the night was that trendy new band Ghost. Their songs were pretty catchy and easy to like. They were a bit theatrical, which I liked, especially the costumes. I didn’t think I would like them but I did.

Well there it is… Another fabulous weekend at Maryland Deathfest. It was one of the best ones yet. Every year I say I hope I can make it to the next one. This year is no different.

More pictures can be found here on my flickr page

Friday

I had just taking a few really nice bong hits when I received a text message from Kenny saying he had just arrived in Baltimore. I started to feel as though we were a bit behind times. I had left my house at around 630AM and jumped on a train to Boston. Then I hung out in South Station for about an hour and a half, clutching my big giant bag for dear life as cops were walking everywhere with dogs sniffing around for bombs and God knows what else. It was the God knows what else that I was worried about. As I was traveling around with copious amounts of herb stuffed into the center of my bag. One and half hours of this went on, as I sat and wondered when did Boston become such a police state? I mean really. I used to work in South Station. It was never like this. Never.

At about 1130AM I arrived in Providence, met up with Sly and then Mike came by and picked us up. We hit the road at about 1PM. We drove straight though with very few stops. We got trapped in New Jersey or Mordor, as Mike so aptly put it, for about two hours. We arrived at the club at around 8PM, Just in time to catch Watain!

The past two years that I went I always traveled down with about seven or eight of my friends. This year nearly all of them backed out. All of them except Sly. Sadly, Snake didn’t go this year either. He backed out at the very last minute, disappointing all of us Snakenetters. Shame on you Snake! Shame on you!

I had hoped to be at the Venue much earlier. Still I was happy just to be there. After all I waited a whole year for this. After I caught the end of Watain’s set, I wandered around looking for the folks from Snakenet that I was sharing a room with. I finally ran into Kenny and he gave me the biggest, bestest hug ever. I stayed at the club for bit drinking beers then headed over to the Sheraton. We were in room 1412. It was really on the 13th floor, not the 14th though. I hung out at the room with my hotel mates for the rest of the night, trying my best not to fall out the big open window. Kenny gave me these really awesome Alice in Wonderland books. The books were most fabulous. It was a great day!

Saturday

Saturday Afternoon I went with Jill, Dennis and Kenny to Little Italy to get a bite to eat. After stopping off at a few different restaurants it didn’t take long for us to realize we really couldn’t afford to eat at any of these places. So we found some crab and pasta place. I got French fries and veggies. The only vegetarian thing on the menu.

Then it was off to the club. I arrived at the venue to find they closed off my most very favorite room. It had very comfortable sofas. That is why it is my most favorite. Saturday and Sunday no one except bands where allowed in my most very favorite room with the comfortable sofas. This perplexed me to no end.

That afternoon I was able to catch some bands play. Incantation and Asphyx were a couple of the ones I saw. I really enjoyed Asphyx’s set. It left me wondering why I don’t listen to this band more often. I of course, could say this about many of the bands I’ve had the privilege of seeing at MDF this year and the two years before as well.

Towards the end of the night everything began to have a warm fuzzy glow, much like these photographs I took before we left Sonar. Only it wasn’t really the end of the night. There were much more adventures ahead.

Wandering around Baltimore we stumbled across this fountain. Apparently there was much going on over at the fountain. I kinda missed it all though cause I was distracted by the pretty lights on the trees. There were some who thought I took pictures of what was going on but really I just took about two dozen pictures of the trees.

We ended up in Jeff’s room at the Tremont. It’s nice that someone always has a room there. Out of all the hotels I’ve been to in the Baltimore area I found that the Tremont has the nicest rooms to party in.

Sunday

One of my most favorite MDF activities is hiding in the shade from the blinding sun and watching the people stumble by and whirl around me. On Sunday I did a lot of that. Every year I go I run into so many people, folks I know from home, random people I met online, and of course all the the people I saw at this thing last year and the year before. I sit down on the grass, I sit down on the pavement or sometimes I just like to stand around. I like to observe. I look around at all the geeks, the misfits and kindred spirits and in my sloshy unsober mind I think These are my people and I love them all so much.

Out of all the bands that played I was looking forward to seeing Obituary the most. I haven’t seen them play in so many years. It was nice seeing them play again. I took a lot of pictures and I think they came out the best out of all the ones I took.

…And then it was over. They stated tearing down the one of the stages before we even left the venue. Walking out the gate for the very last time on the very last night is always so sad.

The very last picture of Jill below I took just for Snake. Even in a non-smoking world you can still find a place to sit back and enjoy a smoke.

Another fabulous weekend of Metal and beer!…I must do this again next year! More pictures can be found here.

Kelly and I walked slowly to the club so we could enjoy a smoke. When we had finally arrived we had already missed the first few bands. The first band we saw was Alestorm. Their set was most fabulous, of course anything involving beer and pirates I’m sure to love, so of course I loved their set. Their music was a great start to a good evening, they really encouraged me to drink up, which I did.

The next band was Belphegor, I was distracted by a bunch of other things, like talking on the phone and Dan being kicked out for smoking. I didn’t give this band much attention and the sound at the club sucked anyways so I wasn’t much into them, but I do listen to them on last.fm, maybe another time at another place I could enjoy their set a bit more.

The last band that played was Eluveitie, before they went on I spoke to Ari who tutored me in the proper pronunciation of their name. He even called over a french women who offered up the correct pronunciation. However hard I tried I could not get the proper pronunciation down. Maybe it was all the beer I drank or just the fact that I suck at that sort of thing. Anyways their set rocked. I loved it.

All and all I had a fabulous time. I am most grateful to Kelly who has driven long distances many times to pick me up and drive me to shows. She is most awesome. I hope we have many more fabulous metal adventures to come.

I only went on Saturday. I wish I could have gone for the entire weekend. Kelly and I arrived at around eight. I took many pictures. I drank Guinness, spent time with friends and saw a few bands.

Becky and Blue, who is most awesome for putting this fest together

+ + +

Downstairs was Hell. There was a band playing. I got a beer and traveled though Hell and eventually out the fire door. There was a little courtyard filled with smokers and other folks. There was a bunch of steps leading to another club called Jerkys. I eventually made it up there for another beer. This place was much more swanky then Hell and more brightly lit. There was also a band playing.

Near the back door of Hell was this interesting fellow bathed in red. So much red that anyone standing near him was also bathed in red.

Everyone was drinking these two dollar local beers called Narragansett. I had a sip of Kelly’s beer. NOT GOOD. I continued to drink Guinness for the rest of the night till we got to the party and someone gave me a Narragansett. That was my last beer of the night.

They eventually shut Hell down for the night and the show continued on upstairs at the snazzy place with the black tin ceilings.

I saw a few bands and took more pictures.

There was a party after. I stayed up till daybreak and slept till noon in a really cozy bed that was out in the living room.

There are many more pictures here.

I took many pictures at MDF. Many of them have a warm fuzzy glow and are slightly blurry. That about captures it though…

It has been over a week since I arrived back. My memories are warm and a bit fuzzy like many of the photos. I drank many pints of Guinness at the club. I ate very little except for the yummy delicious baked goods that were in the hotel room most of the weekend. I saw lots of old friends and saw many great bands. This year was a bit different. They had two stages. One inside and one outside. There was very little overlap between bands, which was nice. I really liked the how it was set up. I hope they do it that way again.

It was nice to see old friends and make new ones. The music and the general atmosphere at MDF was absolutely fabulous. I could not have asked for a better show.

Friday

One of the first bands I saw play was Mayhem. I’m not a huge fan of them so I wasn’t too excited about their set. They did play freezing moon which made me happy.

+ + +

Saturday

Sly blows a 0.19 in the breathalyzer on the elevator.

Kelly & Sarah

Bolt Thrower was awesome. I hope they don’t wait another 14 years before returning to the states.

Wolves in the Throne Room was the last band of the night. All the lighting was all blue. I don’t know what I was expecting, but their set wasn’t as awesome as I wanted it to be. They were still pretty good though and I enjoyed watching them play.

+ + +

The Elevator Incident

After the show at the Tremont many of us crowed into a tiny elevator.

At first everyone was excited that we all manged to squeeze in to the little box. Everyone in there was so loud. It took some time for people to notice we were not moving. Finally when everyone did figure out we were not moving there was a bit of excitement in the little air we had. Someone lit joint, but it didn’t go to far. Then people were starting to want to get out of the elevator.

We were trapped there. The tall people tried to reach for the top of the car and find the trap door, but there was none. Folks started to feel claustrophobic. people were pounding on the door and pushing the alarm. We we were in there about 20 minutes before the doors finally opened. Everyone was happy and cheered. We all climbed out of the elevator. We had to step up about two feet to get out as the elevator had moved at bit before become stuck. I took the stairs for most of the night after that. I walked up and down 32 flights of steps.

+ + +

Sunday

Our daring escape from the Tremont

We were in the hotel room on Sunday afternoon. I was having a beer with Kelly Sarah and Snake. Sarah was making Snake a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The fire alarm went off. Snake and I didn’t bother moving till someone from the hotel told us we had to leave. I put on my boots and grabbed my beer and started to head down 32 flights of stairs with Snake. Sarah and Kelly were already gone. It was a long descent. I remembered it well from the night before. When we finally got to the outside. Snake’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich was waiting for him. It had arrive before he did. We sat down on the curb and finished our beer. Snake got peanut butter and jelly all over his fingers. I took the picture and then we headed back to the club.

+ + +

These were taken at the club, mostly Snakenet folks and the hot chick.

Deströyer 666 and a sea of horns…Beautiful.
One of my most favorite pictures from MDF.

The last band that Played MDF was Sigh. They were awesome. They were joined by Danny Lilker and they played a few cover songs including Countess Bathory which the audience really seamed to like.

The Sigh Fire Book

Jacqui always manages to find something cool when we go out shows. She got the Sigh fire book from a roadie or something.

I had the most wonderful time. I must return next year.
Lots more pictures here

There are lots of metal fans out there. Some are rusty old vintage fans with heavy dull blades. Some are tall. Some are made for table tops. They keep us cool on hot summer days. They scatter smoke around the room. They help us drift off to sleep to hypnotic hum of spinning blades. Then there are those other metal fans who live for music. This design is for them.

It’s available at my Zazzle and my Cafepress shop.

There was a time when the internet wasn’t everywhere, like it is today. If you wanted to find information on bands, you had to get it the old fashion way, by reading zines. Back then I bought zines all the time. Strangely enough I managed to hang on to most them.

About a year ago a few people on The Hordes of Black Metal were requesting scans of old zines. So I rummaged through my old collection, scanned in a few things of interest and posted them. Anyways I finally got around to creating a nice little page on my web site. The scans are not that great. All the zines I have up are really old, out of print and hard to find. They are from the early to mid nineties. At some point I’m gonna scan in some more and keep adding to the page.

The page is here. Enjoy!

FRIDAY

After a long car ride we arrived in Baltimore at about 2PM. We waited in the lobby for about two, yes two, fuckin hours for our room. It was a nice lobby. Old looking. Painted ceilings, chandeliers, a rather nice statue in the window and fresh sunflowers atop a grand piano.

The others arrived shortly after we got the room. At which point Sarah felt the need to rearrange the room immediately. The guys left and went the club while the ladies continued to rearrange the room. Then we got ready.

…and headed to the club.

I liked the club. Three rooms. One big one with the stage, a bar and some merch tables. Another with a bar, comfy sofas and more merch tables. The other room had mostly merch tables. I spent a lot of time in that room on Friday. I got some cool things that day too, a Burzum shirt, a Nokturnal Mortum CD, a couple of Graveland CD’s and a few Hate forest tapes. [Yes, I still buy tapes.]

The only band I was really interested in seeing that night was Grave. I love this band. This is the band that made me want to go in the first place. They played last. Their set was fuckin fabulous.

After the show we had a small party in our room. I don’t remember much. Becky and I walked Snake back to his hotel and returned to a room full of sleeping people. I remember walking to the back of the room to get cookies and trying my best not to step on people with my big black boots. Becky and I are insomniacs. We were banished to the hallway. We giggled quietly and ate cookies. We tried to be quiet, but I doubt we were. I kept telling her to put her pants back on. She insisted her underwear looked like shorts. I think we ate a whole box of cookies.

SATURDAY

I woke to laughter. Sly was making us all laugh. I don’t know how he had so much energy in the morning. Must have been the electrolytes. The guys got up, got ready and were out the door before some of us ladies even could crawl out of bed. After they were gone we sat around and talked about bras for a really long time. Afterwards we took showers and a few folks made a trip to Starbucks.

I’m not gonna name any names, but there were a few among us who have a serious addiction to Starbucks. Luckily there was a Starbucks near by. Well that and the coffee maker and four pounds of coffee that we brought with us.

We eventually made it the club. I ventured into the big room just in time for Behold… The Arctopus. As I listened the their set I was not really sure what I thought of them. I know remember thinking Wow their singer couldn’t make it and they still decided to play anyways. How cool. Well as it turns out there is no singer. They are an instrumental band and one of them plays a crazy guitar called warr guitar. At some point I have to give these guys a another listen.

Some time during the late afternoon we ended up in Snake’s hotel suite, And wow, it was pretty fuckin swanky. We had a few drinks and hung out for a bit.

Then we headed back to the club. It was a good day to wear my Great Kat shirt. As I was looking around at one of the merch tables the guy whose table it was pointed out a Great Kat CD that I once had on tape and lost some time ago. It was a pretty good find. I must say and I’m quite happy to have it again.

The headliner for that night was Anaal Nathrakh. I was looking forward to seeing them. However I was quite disappointed with their set when I finally did see them. It was during their set that something quite strange happened. I was standing behind Sly watching the show. The guy standing next to him went up to him tried to tickle him and then tried to kiss him. Sly fought him off, hands flailing, in a less then valiant fashion. It was quite comical. I would have laughed if I wore not in such a state of shock. I’ve seen a lot of things in all my years of going to shows, but never anything like this. Yes this was quite an event to witness.

After the show we went to Snake’s room. Did I mention that it was a good day to were my Great Kat shirt, cause it really was. I met a guy there who played drums for her. That was cool.

At some point we ended up in Jeff’s hotel room. We hung out with Behold… The Arctopus. Jeff passed out with a beer in his hand and Sly went on for about an hour about how butt rock has boner riffs. Afterwards we went back to our hotel and I was the last one to fall asleep.

SUNDAY

Before heading to the club we hit a nice little park and had lunch. Sarah and I dined on chairs that were chained to the table.

We went to the club. I was finally able to find the MDF merch table and got a cool shirts. I also found some cool vinyl. I got a Burzum Det Som Engang Var record and a Morbid Angel Alters of Madness picture disc. [ Yes, I still buy records.]

I saw lots of bands. Some of them were really good. However, I had been drinking since Friday and was too dunk to check my MDF schedule to see who I was watching.

At some point during the night I went outside. There was an ambulance in front of the club. A few moment later they brought out this guy. He was on stretcher. In one hand he held a cigarette, with the other hand he held the horns up high. The crowd cheered for him as they put in the ambulance.

The Final band for the fest was Nuclear Assault.

And then it was over.

However, the party continued, in Snake’s luxury suite. It was a fun time. Jeff passed out again with a beer in his hand.

He wasn’t the only one though…

It was a great night.

Next thing I knew we were back in our hotel room. I wanted to stay up, drink beer and eat cookies. Everyone else was going to sleep. Like all the nights before I was the last one up. Except this time I didn’t have a fun day of metal and beer to look forward to when I awoke in the morning. It was really over and that made me sad. I could fell the post-metalfest depression setting in and I knew it was time to go to sleep.

MONDAY

We all managed to roll out of our beds and sleeping bags before checkout.

We Packed up the cars…

and hit Starbucks before leaving Baltimore.

We also managed to get a group photo with all of us, even me.

It was a great weekend. The bands were great, the club was cool and the parties were fun.

I want to do this again next year.

+ + +

[Some events may be out of order or remembered a bit differently then they actually happened.
Sorry I was drunk and it’s been about two weeks.]

I have a bunch more pictures here.